The present invention is in the field of telephony communications, and pertains more particularly to methods and apparatus for routing calls incoming to a multi-tenant communication center.
In the field of telephony services, there has been much improvement over the years concerning the routing and other treatment of telephony events. Telephony in general has become a computer-integrated service that can be practiced over a connection-oriented service network such as the well-known public-switched telephony network (PSTN), as well as over data-packet networks (DPN) such as the well-known Internet network. More recently telephony methods and techniques have been incorporated to function in a combination of connection-oriented and shared-bandwidth (DPN) networks.
However technically advanced a telephony system may be, it is still a goal of telephony providers as well as practitioners to experience a high-quality telephony service without incurring exponential costs related to provision of architecture, software, and other newly-advanced components. In a communication center environment, quality of service is critical. Routing flexibility and reliability are also highly important in achieving high quality of service to clients patronizing the center. Computer-Telephony-Integration (CTI) has enabled many improvements in the art of telephony.
In a CTI-enhanced communication system known to the inventor, intelligent routing is provided by a software application known as a transaction server (TS). Utilizing TS technologies, intelligent routing rules may be implemented both at agent level within the communication center itself (agent level routing) and in the realm of the external telephony network. In the latter case, agent-level routing may be performed at network level. Using this technology along with a separate dedicated network, information about callers attempting to contact the center may be passed to the center ahead of actual calls, thereby giving agents additional time to prepare for incoming calls on a call-to-call basis.
Interactive-voice-response technologies (IVR) may also be present and utilized both at network level and at agent level in communication centers known to the inventor. Integration with data networks has resulted in new voice formats such as voice over Internet protocol (VoIP), and others. Multi-capable communication centers, meaning that agents stationed therein interact with callers on either or both of a COST network and an IP network are known to the inventor. Also known are pure IP communication centers wherein there are no traditional COST connections required for agent""s telephones. In this type of center, all calls, whether sourced from a COST network or from a data network, are handled utilizing LAN connected PCs and/or IP telephones.
In some communication centers, there are multiple tenants that share telephony resources for the purpose of serving separate customer bases. For example, two separate and distinct companies may share a call center for providing service advice to their respective customer bases. The tenants typically share the cost of telephony services including routing services and IVR services. A typical multi-tenant communication center has at least one LAN-connected agent working in the center for each tenant of the center, although this is not necessarily a requirement. One agent could represent more than one tenant. Hopefully, all calls arriving at the center and destined for a particular tenant are routed to the tenant""s agent, or group of agents representing that tenant.
In a multi-tenant communication center as described above, routing software and IVR resources must be allocated or shared between all of the tenants. In many cases, multiple tenants of a single communication center are very different from one another in terms of products offered, nature of services provided, etc. Because all of the tenants share a common architecture including connected processors and other service machines, it becomes expensive to provide singular routing routines and personalized IVR services for each tenant. Therefore, generic routing routines and IVR services are typically provided tending to limit the quality of service experienced by clients calling into the center. The fact that the tenants share resources is not then necessarily transparent to the clients. Moreover, many possible routing preferences and IVR preferences desired by individual tenants that could be practiced on the architecture of the center are not implemented because of cost-sharing and equipment limitations.
Providing separate instances of routing software and IVR resources individually for each tenant of a multi-tenant communication center is not conventionally cost-effective. Similarly, it is not conventionally cost-effective to maintain a separate CTI link between a communication center or network switch and each of the tenants. Still, it is desired that individual tenants of a multi-tenant communication center share communication center resources, but still enjoy individual security and versatility with respect to servicing their clients.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus for providing shared secure and personalized telephony resources for all tenants subscribing to a multi-tenant communication center without requiring additional CTI links and other associated equipment.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a transaction server system is provided for routing and processing telephony events in a multi-tenant communication center. The transaction server system comprises, a CTI-enabled routing point having transaction server software and multiple venues for receiving and notifying of telephony events according to venue, a plurality of virtual transaction server applications associated one each per venue for disposing of pending telephony events according to established protocols and an intermediary server disposed between and connected to the routing point and to the plurality of virtual transaction applications. The intermediary server maps communication paths between individual ones of the multiple venues of the routing point to individual ones of the virtual transaction applications and wherein each virtual transaction application functions on behalf of at least one tenant of the multi-tenant communication center to process events.
In one aspect, the CTI-enabled routing point is a telephony switch hosted in a telephony network. In another aspect, the CTI-enabled routing point is a telephony switch hosted within the multi-tenant communication center. In still another aspect, the CTI-enabled routing point is an Internet protocol router hosted on Internet network. In yet another aspect, the CTI-enabled routing point is an Internet protocol router hosted within the multi-tenant communication center and connected to the Internet.
In one aspect, the multiple venues are tenant-dedicated hardware ports of an interactive voice response resource associated with the routing point. In another aspect, the multiple venues are tenant-dedicated software channels of an interactive voice response resource associated with the routing point. In one embodiment, the multi-tenant communication center handles connection-oriented-switched-telephony. In another embodiment, the multi-tenant communication center handles Internet-protocol-network-telephony. In still another embodiment, the multi-tenant communication center handles all sorts of telephony, including conventional connection-oriented and all sorts of packet-switched telephony connection-oriented-switched-telephony and Internet-protocol-network-telephony. In a preferred aspect, the virtual transaction server applications are configurable wherein the configurations depend upon the main transaction server software structure for successful function.
In another aspect of the present invention, a mapping server is provided for mapping and establishing appropriate communication paths between multiple tenant-dedicated venues and multiple tenant-dedicated transaction server applications in a multi-tenant communication center environment. The mapping server comprises, at least one bi-directional port for establishing communication with at least one machine hosting the multiple venues, at least one bi-directional port for establishing communication with at least one machine hosting the multiple transaction server applications and a software table running on the server for updating and keeping track of the mapping assignments between the dedicated venues and the transaction server applications.
In one embodiment, the mapping server is connected to a CTI-enabled routing point comprising a telephony switch hosted in a telephony network. In another embodiment the mapping server is connected to a CTI-enabled routing point comprising a telephony switch hosted within the multi-tenant communication center. In still another embodiment, the mapping server is connected to a CTI-enabled routing point comprising an Internet protocol router hosted on Internet network. In yet another embodiment, it is connected to a CTI-enabled routing point comprising an Internet protocol router hosted within the multi-tenant communication center and connected to the Internet.
In one aspect, the multiple venues are tenant-dedicated hardware ports of an interactive voice response resource associated with a routing point. In another aspect, the multiple venues are tenant-dedicated software channels of an interactive voice response resource associated with a routing point. The virtual transaction server applications are configurable, in a preferred aspect, using individual desktop software applications established on computers enabled by LAN technology.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a software application is provided for emulating transaction server function in a CTI-enabled communication center. The software application comprises, a portion thereof for receiving communication event notification and for consulting main transaction protocols, a portion thereof for formulating and establishing a further-defined set of transaction protocols based on the main transaction protocols, a portion thereof for formulating and executing transaction orders based on the further-defined set of transaction protocols and a portion thereof for enabling modification of the further-defined set of transaction protocols.
In one aspect, all of the portions reside on a single machine. In another aspect, the portions are divided and strategically distributed to execute on more than one machine. In one embodiment, one of the machines is a personal computer having LAN and TCP/IP capability hosted within the communication center. In a variation to this aspect, one of the machines is a personal computer remote from the communication center having connection capability thereto using the Internet network.
In still another aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for sharing communication center resources in a multi-tenant communication center. The method comprises the steps of, (a) dividing the resources into separate venues assigned and dedicated one per tenant, (b) providing individually assigned and dedicated tenant applications capable of utilizing the resources, (c) providing an intermediary mapping application for connecting individual ones of the venues associated with the resources to individual ones of the tenant applications for communication of notifications of events and call-disposal instructions.
In one aspect of the method in step (a) the resources are IVR resources and the multi-tenant communication center is a connection-oriented-switched-telephony center. In another aspect, the resources are a combination of transaction server and IVR resources and the multi-tenant communication center is a connection-oriented-switched-telephony center. In one aspect of the method in step (a) the venues are hardware IVR ports. In another aspect, the venues are software IVR channels. In still another aspect of the method in step (a) the resources are IVR resources and the multi-tenant communication center is an Internet-protocol-network-telephony center. In this aspect, the multiple venues are software IVR channels.
In preferred application in step (b), the tenant applications are virtual transaction server applications depended from a main transaction server application. In another aspect of the method in step (c) the communication comprises at least sending notification of telephony events and parameters to be handled by the tenant applications according to call disposal rules.
Now, for the first time, a method and apparatus is provided for providing shared secure and personalized telephony resources for all tenants subscribing to a multi-tenant communication center without requiring additional CTI links and other associated equipment.